Beta motor neurons (β motor neurons), also called beta motoneurons, are a kind of

lower motor neuron Lower motor neurons (LMNs) are motor neurons located in either the anterior grey column, anterior nerve roots (spinal lower motor neurons) or the cranial nerve nuclei of the brainstem and cranial nerves with motor function (cranial nerve low ...

, along with

alpha motor neuron Alpha (α) motor neurons (also called alpha motoneurons), are large, multipolar lower motor neurons of the brainstem and spinal cord. They innervate extrafusal muscle fibers of skeletal muscle and are directly responsible for initiating their co ...

s and

gamma motor neuron A gamma motor neuron (γ motor neuron), also called gamma motoneuron, or fusimotor neuron, is a type of lower motor neuron that takes part in the process of muscle contraction, and represents about 30% of ( Aγ) fibers going to the muscle. Like ...

s. Beta motor neurons innervate intrafusal fibers of

muscle spindles Muscle spindles are stretch receptors within the body of a skeletal muscle that primarily detect changes in the length of the muscle. They convey length information to the central nervous system via afferent nerve fibers. This information can be ...

with collaterals to extrafusal fibers - a type of slow twitch fiber. Also,

axons An axon (from Greek ἄξων ''áxōn'', axis), or nerve fiber (or nerve fibre: see spelling differences), is a long, slender projection of a nerve cell, or neuron, in vertebrates, that typically conducts electrical impulses known as action p ...

of alpha, beta, and gamma motor neurons become

myelinated Myelin is a lipid-rich material that surrounds nerve cell axons (the nervous system's "wires") to insulate them and increase the rate at which electrical impulses (called action potentials) are passed along the axon. The myelinated axon can be l ...

. Moreover, these efferent neurons originate from the

anterior grey column The anterior grey column (also called the anterior cornu, anterior horn of spinal cord, motor horn or ventral horn) is the front column of grey matter in the spinal cord. It is one of the three grey columns. The anterior grey column contains motor ...

of the

spinal cord The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue, which extends from the medulla oblongata in the brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone). The backbone encloses the central canal of the sp ...

and travel to

skeletal muscles Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscle ...

. However, the larger diameter alpha motor fibers require higher conduction velocity than beta and gamma.

Types

There are two kinds of beta motor neuron (as gamma motor neuron) that include: *Static beta motor neurons. These motor neurons innervate

nuclear chain fiber A nuclear chain fiber is a specialized sensory organ contained within a muscle. Nuclear chain fibers are intrafusal fibers that, along with nuclear bag fibers, make up the muscle spindle responsible for the detection of changes in muscle le ...

s of muscle spindles, with collaterals to extrafusal muscle fibers. *Dynamic beta motor neurons. The dynamic type innervates nuclear bag fibers of muscle spindles, with collaterals to extrafusal muscle fibers. Gamma motor neurons innervate only intrafusal fibers of muscle spindles, but extrafusal fibers (i.e. slow and fast fibers) are innervated by alpha motoneurons.

References

*Williams & Warwick. Gray's Anatomy. Thirty-seventh edition. Churchill Livingstone. *https://web.archive.org/web/20100725065352/https://musom.marshall.edu/anatomy/grosshom/Musclesensory.html {{Nervous tissue Somatic motor system Efferent neurons

Types

See also

References